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Related Experiment Videos

Counterfactual thinking and the first instinct fallacy.

Justin Kruger1, Derrick Wirtz, Dale T Miller

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. jkruger@uiuc.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|May 19, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Most people wrongly believe they should not change answers on multiple-choice tests. Research shows changing answers often improves scores, but counterfactual thinking makes people remember mistakes from switching more vividly.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Educational Psychology

Background:

  • Common belief dictates avoiding answer changes on multiple-choice tests.
  • Empirical research contradicts this belief, showing score improvements from changing answers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the psychological reasons behind the persistent belief in not changing test answers.
  • To explore the role of counterfactual thinking in this phenomenon.

Main Methods:

  • The study likely involved analyzing existing research and proposing a psychological mechanism.
  • It may have used theoretical arguments and examples to illustrate the concept of counterfactual thinking.

Main Results:

  • Most answer changes are from incorrect to correct, leading to score improvements.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Counterfactual thinking, specifically regret over incorrect changes, makes people overvalue sticking with initial answers.

    • Conclusions:

    • The belief in not changing answers is psychologically driven by biased memory of regret.
    • This cognitive bias leads to suboptimal test-taking strategies and lower scores.